Independent: Sequel to Brave
by wshih
Summary: Young Merida of the Dunbroch Clan is outraged when a letter coming from a prestigous royal academy of Europe, but when she goes to Royal Academy, it dosen't seem so bad. There is Joren for instance, and archering lessons. And with Elinor's hopes of having a princess-like Merida and making her marry, and the mysterious Margot...what will happen in this academy?
1. A very special letter

Dearest Princess Merida,

You have been accepted to Royal Academy, an academy for princesses and princes. In this academy, the student has to learn all the skills necessary to become a proper king or queen in the future. Many famous kings and queens have gone to this academy, including your mother. We are mentioning that this school is not only for royal children of kings and queens. But also of lords, dukes,ministers and etcetera. And, only royal children from Europe may be allowed in Royal Academy. Please read the requirements below, the materials and the class schedules. Discuss it with your parents, have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Rolinda Du Gates, Headmistress of Royal Academy.


	2. Enraged

"THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!" shouted Merida as she tore the paper.

"Merida," said Queen Elinor, her mother patiently.

"Making me marry was worse enough, but going to a sissy PRINCESS SCHOOL?"

"Merida, there will be princes, sons of dukes and lords! It will be fun, there'll be archery classes!" Queen Elinor cheered up Merida.

Merida actually liked that she had new challenges and the archery lessons didn't seem so bad...but, WHAT THINGS WOULD SHE MISS!

There was Angus, oh, Angus! How could she, leave him, her faithful horse!

Then there was archering in the woods, with the horizon falling behind her, and the flush green woods with a strange magic...

"But MUM! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I should HAVE KNOWN!" said Merida indignant, THAT was true.

"Well Merida..." Queen Elinor trailed off, looking for an excuse, "I wanted to surprise you!"

"Some surprise," muttered Merida.

"Don't worry about anything Merida! We've told the lords to tell their sons to protect you! You will be totally fine!" said Queen Elinor not noticing Merida's face turning as red as her red mane.

"TOTALLY FINE?! WHAT? This academy was an ACCEPTABLE choice, but with the LORD'S SON PROTECTING ME? I AM NEVER GOING TO SURVIVE!"

"Merida..." warned Elinor.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE SEEN with Young Macintosh! Jeesh, he's an ARROGANT FOOL, MOTHER! I don't even know how you once obliged me to marry HIM or any other lords's son!"

Queen Elinor tried to hide a smirk, knowing Lord Macintosh since SHE was a young girl, she could tell that was true. She sighed. Same father, same son...a famous quote. 'Be polite Elinor, you are the Queen, the example,' she thought to herself but still smiled.

"You better get used to it Merida, you'll be going in 1 week, and there is going to be a VARIETY, of people from Europe."

"Wait a second! Did you just say 1 WEEK?"

"Yes Merida, go pack."

"But-"

"Merida, remember last year?" Queen Elinor asked, shuddering herself of the embarrasing, yet emotional memory.

Queen Elinor had been turned into a bear 1 year ago, with the same spell used on Mor'du. After that, she and Merida had been closer than ever, and their mother and daughter bond was VERY UNDERSTANDABLE.

"Fine," spat Merida and went up.

Secretly, Merida felt a wee bit excited, but very nervous.

What would she encounter?

_Sorry, super short, but just a simple introduction to her anger, the next one will be more interesting! Thanks for reading!_


	3. A tedious first day

**1 week after the letter and anger of Merida...**

Merida stepped into Royal Academy.

The outside had been breath-taking. It was the season when roses bloomed, the fields were flush and bright green. Glittering ponds stood next to exotic looking flowers, with long healthy green stems and beautiful soft petals. The smell was so fresh, and clean. Almost as if it were purified, and many artistic alabaster sculptures were outside. Fellow princesses picked up flowers gently and made gorgeous bouquets to send home. My description might even be too poor to tell you how beautiful it really was. The outside of Royal Academy was as outstanding as the gardens, as Queen Elinor had told her enthusiastically 1 week ago, there were more than 300 rooms for all of the royal children. And the castle was made of pure gold! Also, it was 100 meters high, which Merida now, believed. The ancient looking castle was also decorated with beautiful carvings,precious stones and beautiful crystals.

Now, the inside was even better. I can't even descibe it well! Oh, the rugs, the chandeliers, the golden and silver lockers, the floors,the ceiling, and the variety of students! Merida couldn't even BELIEVE IT! Then, Merida clumsily followed the rest of the students to a great room. The room walls were silver, and the floor was covered by a very warm rug. There were many silver chairs also, and Merida, who was very tired from the journey, randomly sat down. Students poured in, and Merida admired them all. When suddenly a very weird accent said:

"Excuse me, you are sitting in my seat, would you please be kind enough to move?"

Merida looked up and saw a handsome prince. He had olive skin, and bright blue eyes like Merida. His hair was a messy brown, and he wore a simple outfit unlike the other princes. Just a simple bronze armor, and a sword against his back. His blue eyes twinkled as he flashed a smile. He had two neat rows of teeth, which shone like pearls. He caught Merida's attention. And their blue eyes met.

Merida almost forgot what he had asked:

"Oh...um, yes! Of course, I'm sorry" she said getting up and giving him the seat.

The boy nodded, smiled, and sat down.

"Thank you. And if you are lost, you will see that each chair has our name in the back, it is arranged in alphabetical order."

It was as if he had read her thoughts and known she was lost! For a second, Merida was shocked but then went back to life.

"Oh, thank you. My name's Merida by the way, from the Dunbroch Clan, and heir of Scotland" Merida said awkwardly, but the boy paid no attention to that.

"My name is Joren, Joren the Second. I am the heir to the British throne" he said. Then the trumpets sounded.

"You better find your seat, it is about time for the ceremony to begin. It was good meeting you, Merida" said Joren.

"Me too," said Merida and quickly shuffled through the lines of chairs.

The girls next to her were very different, but Merida found a lot of curiosity in the one at her left side.

The girl was tall and muscular, her obsidian black hair tied into a neat long ponytail. Her eyes were bright green, like the forests in Scotland. Her skin was creamy, but full of scars,cuts and unhealed injuries. There was still dried blood in one. Merida shuddered. The jewelery was frightening for Merida, she had two necklaces. One was thin and made of gold and another one was made of human bones. Merida shuddered. The girl wore a bronze breastplate that covered a simple white shirt in the inside. She also had some male pants (were they even invented yet?). 2 knife handles were sticking out of her hunting boots, a silver sword was hanging from her belt, also, a bow and a few arrows were strapped against her back. But she looked sort of pretty, with a narrow and intelligent face.

The one in her right side looked friendlier.

The girl had pale blonde hair, and light blue eyes. Her pale blonde hair (sort of Malfoy-ish) was tied in a neat braid, adorned with lilies. Her hands look terribly pale, however, and they looked a bit blue. Plus, there were bits of frost in the terribly delicate pale skin. She wore a long light blue dress with white sleeves in shapes of snowflakes. A sapphire necklace hung on her neck.

"Hello, I am Miriam," the girl said with a weak smile.

Merida grinned. A potential friend.

"Greetings, name's Merida, from Dunbroch Clan, Scotland."

"Princess of Iceland, heir actually, you?"

"Me too, and it's not that wee bit easy," Merida shuddered by the thoughts of last year, she planned to start new.

"Oh yes! It is terrible, is it not?" said Miriam rolling her thin eyelashes.

Before Merida could respond a tall lady with chocolate skin, green eyes, and a long flowing toga came into the stage.

"Who is she?" asked Merida confused, and what kind of outfit was that?

"Why, that is the Headmistress, Madam Rolinda Du Gates, she is greek," Miriam looked at Merida's confused face, "and that flowing white dress, is a toga."

"Well, Du Gates ain't sound greek" said Merida, that's when the rough girl at her left turned to them.

"Look," she said to Merida, "THE HAG, is Greek, the hag's father, was British, and the hag's mother is greek also."

"Why, you should not call Madam hag, Margot" said Miriam softly afraid that at any moment Margot would bite her head off.

Margot rolled her eyes and turned to the currently talking Rolinda Du Gates. She talked about expectations (which everybody looked at Margot), about how glad she was they were there, the schedules,the fun, the classes, and the new friendships they would make. And after a few LONG speeches which energetic Merida almost fell asleep in, Rolinda du Gates said in a booming voice:

"Now, THE ROOM MATING!"

Margot grunted and started praying:

"Notre Père, qui es aux cieux,  
Que ton nom soit sanctifié,  
Que ton règne vienne,  
Que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.

Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain de ce jour.  
Pardonne-nous nos offences

Comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.  
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,  
mais délivre-nous du mal,  
car c'est à toi qu'appartiennent le règne,  
la puissance et la gloire, aux siècles des siècles.  
Amen."

It was the lord's prayer, in well, french.

"Fancy prayer, you french?" asked Merida.

A grunt was the sole reply of Margot and Merida shuddered.

"I'll take that as a no," mumbled Merida to herself.

Then she turned to Miriam.

"So what's happening?"

"Why, Madam Du Gates is going to give us our room mates, normally 3 people will share one room for the WHOLE YEAR" said Miriam, her hands shaking while her voice was sounding unusually calm.

"Wait, is it going to be MIXED?" asked Merida, suddenly she thought of Joren, oh lord. She waited for Miriam's wise and patient answer but was taken back when a big hearty chuckle.

"No, no, no!" Miriam chuckled, "there are two bowls, one for boys and one for girls, girls go first so we ALWAYS pray first."

"Oh," was Merida's only reply. She was nervous.

Then after taking three strips of paper, Madam Du Gates said:

"Princess Adrianne of Rome,

Princess Sofia of Spain, and

Princess Anastasia of Poland."

As the three blonde girls came together on the stage, they squealed repeatedly (and DISGUSTINGLY, which would remind you more of dolphins than people) and were granted a golden key each for their shared room.

Next to Merida, Margot rolled her eyes and snorted. Miriam averted gaze with them.

"What's wrong with them?" Merida asked Miriam.

"EVERYTHING," she muttered darkly, which was unusual.

The blonde girls passed Merida, oblivious of her, and were talking about make-up and other girly stuff while their baggages were bouncing on their back.

Then Madam Du Gates grabbed three more strips.

"Princess Merida of Scotland,

Princess Miriam of Iceland and

Princess Margot of La Gaule."

Margot looked as if she was going to faint, she gave Merida and Miriam an evil look as to say:

_I am SO going to kill you both._

The three went off, grabbed their keys and like the other girls rushed to Room B-7. At first the three were lost, in a kingdom of wonder and elegance...every floor was a new wonder, if it were not for Margot and her rude remarks they would have never gotten there. Then they found it. A silver door with the golden words: B-7.

"Well," shrugged Merida, she grabbed her key and opened the door.

'Wow,' thought Merida as she went inside, but 'wow' didn't cover it. Perhaps neither of the girls could describe the room's ultimate BEAUTY.

So this is how they would probably just say about their room.

There were 3 neat beds, very elegant and fluffy indeed, with one side stuck to the wall. Like bunk beds. A silver bed hung about the same height of the golden bed, and below the golden bed, was a bronze bed.

"I GET THE SILVER ONE PUNKS, NO ARGUING" Margot said, jumped on the ladder and in a flash of a second, she was up and unpacking.

Merida looked at Miriam who fumbled with her fingers uneasily.

"I-I will get the lower bunk, so-so you will get the high bunk."

Miriam calmly settled in the lower bunk, folding her clothes neatly and putting some stuff on her wall. Merida could already figure out she was a clean freak.

Merida was secretly afraid of heights, she'd never told anybody, not even Queen Elinor, so still, she really didn't LIKE being on the high bunk, but she figured out that to poor Miriam it would be worse so she didn't argue.

Margot was reading a book called:

**CRUSHING THE ENGLISH: WAR TACTICS**

So Merida figured out she and Joren didn't go on pretty well.

"Classes start today, did you know that Merida?" Miriam said to Merida.

"Really? They don't give us a wee bit of vacation?"

Margot dropped her book and cracked out laughing, only confusing Merida.

"Why yes, they said, that we are starting after we pack our things and figure everything out."

"Then let's go!" Merida said, Margot had already stormed out cracking out, while Merida just looked at Miriam.

"Merida?"

"Yes?"

"One thing."

"Anything."

"Um...do not say 'wee,' say 'little,' or you will be the laughing stock of this academy."

"Oh, all right."

They kept walking and Merida wasn't her best at all classes. Suprisingly, Margot turned out to be a teacher's pet. Merida was already wanting to go home.

After being scolded twice for sleeping through Tactics Class (hey, don't judge her! An hour of reading about battle strategies, and blood spilling all over, Merida was just bored, AND disgusted), failing to do some equations (which tired her mind), stepping on Madam Langorge's foot while they were in Dancing Lessons, burning the pot in Cooking Lessons, tanging her yarn in Sewing Lessons, and daydreaming in History Class, Merida WAS already the laughing stock of the academy. She felt ridiculous, until lunch came.

They avoided eye-contact with everybody and they sat down on a table.

"You sitting with us, Margot?" asked Merida to Margot.

"In fact, WEE LASS," smirked Margot, "I have other friends."

From a far table, a group of menacing looking boys whistled Margot over, and she grinned.

"Do not worry Merida, Archery is still to come," smiled Miriam, after the girls talked pleasantly and archery class was coming.

Merida surpassed everybody, she skipped several levels of archery along with Margot (who was great at that as well) and now practiced archery with men.

That was a new experience for Merida, but she loved it. There were strong companions, not everybody could shoot an arrow as well as Merida in Scotland.

Then there was spear throwing (Merida was okay), knife throwing (okay too), ax throwing (weird but okay too), and the final physical education class.

Swordfighting.

Merida won all of her 5 rounds, and she was resting happily, she had an awful bruise on her knee, but that just made her more comfortable.

She was also glad that Joren was in her swordfighting class too, he smiled at Merida as he won his innitial 4 rounds when the last was shocking.

Coach Evergreen shouted:

"PRINCESS MARGOT OF GAULE VS. PRINCE JOREN OF ENGLAND!"

A hush entered the crowd, and murmuring started, Merida asked one of the nearby boys, a tall Greek, with a flowing white toga, and one of Margot's friends:

"What's the commotion about?"

Fortunately the boy was nicer than Margot.

"Well, you see, England and La Gaule have always been natural enemies. So the children have always hated each other. Here an example."

"But if they hate each other so much, wouldn't they be able to kill each other?" asked Merida, the boy shrugged.

"Naturally, yes. They are trained after all."

So Margot hopped off from the bleachers, as Joren did too.

They glared at each other, and Joren murmured something, barely audible, but of course, Margot heard it and murmured something harsher back.

The battle that followed was bloody, of course the coach didn't let them kill each other, but they were hurt, the dodging, the jumping, the hitting, the slashing and there was bits of blood around the field.

So the last class was Astronomy, and everybody was heading to the middle grounds.

"Are you all right?" asked Merida to Joren as she saw him alone, away from his friends temporally.

"Yes, I am fine. But I could have killed the frog," he spat.

"That dosen't look fine," Merida said pointing to an injury on Joren arm, which stretched from his elbow to his wrist.

"I am fine, really, you remember me of my mother, Merida," chuckled Joren, and Merida knew she had gained a friend.

They reached Astronomy, which Merida was clueless about. Yes, stars were beautiful, but there was not much sense in studying them, what could they bring you? Those useless, but pretty things?

She fell asleep most of it, with the teacher scolding her repeatedly, and Merida was glad when the class was over, Merida stayed the latest looking at a drawing of a star, shining above, the parts were labeled and Merida sighed. Her first, miserable day.

Surprisingly, a pair of white teeth was waiting for her outside the class.

"I suppose, you do not like Astronomy?" Joren asked.

"Not at all. Not a single wee-" Merida paused in the 'wee' and blushed.

Joren laughed, "No! It dosen't bother me at all! But it is quite embarassing!"

"So why did you meet me here?" asked Merida, even Miriam was in the room.

"Oh, can't I talk to a friend of mine?" asked Joren bowing english-style.

Merida smiled, "Of course you can! But..."

"Well, as I was saying, Astronomy is interesting. Did you know, that stars can foretell the future?" asked Joren with a handful of charm.

"Really?"

"Why yes! I was offering to teach you tonight."

"TONIGHT?"

"Yes!" Joren smiled at her, "midnight is the best time to see the stars. If you want to come, meet me at my locker," he pointed to a shiny silver locker, "at exactly midnight. Are you coming?"

It was tempting, a night with Joren, out looking at the stars, alone, alone was good...

But the trouble, Joren was already a perfect student, no real casualities...but her, she was the trouble, the laughing stock, the clumsy one. Merida weighed the pro's and con's but finally decided...

"I would love to."


End file.
